Early Fall in Summit County

It’s time to start heading towards home in Missouri but its a long, long way from Walla Walla so John drove 11 hours one day and 6 hours the next to arrive in Frisco, CO for a three night break at Heaton Bay on Lake Dillon.  

Our original plan was to get home on the 21st after visiting family in Oklahoma but my mother is haveing some troubles that my brother and sister have been dealing with and I felt it was time for me to get back and do my part with helping her.

It’s been a nice break to be in the mountains and riding our bikes every day.  We took a short ride around Lake Dillon on the day we arrived and then got up early on Monday morning and rode our bikes all the way up to Vail Pass. From Frisco to Copper Mountain Ski Resort is about 7 miles and then we rode another 9 miles to the Pass.  We considered riding down to Vail but that would have added another 18-20 miles to our day.  It was a beautiful day but at 10am the temperature was still in the 40’s until the sun moved above the mountain tops then it warmed up into the 70’s.  I never quite warmed up!  

From Copper Mtn. to Vail Pass the trail runs between the east bound and the west bound lanes of I-70 but due to the spacing and the trees and bushes and creek, one does not really notice the traffic.  We are so enjoying our e-bikes on these steep trails.

Today we rode from Heaton Bay through Frisco and up to Breckenridge where we window shopped and ate lunch.  They have closed about 5 blocks of their downtown area to cars so that the restaurants can set up tables in the street for pleasant outdoor dining and they have a mask order in place so we felt very safe.

Tomorrow (Wed.) we head to Missouri.  It’s a long enough drive that we will break it up into a two day drive.  This summer has been enjoyable but stressful due to the pandemic.  Enjoyable in that the US has so many wonderful national and state parks in which to explore nature and her beauty. Stressful in that everyone else is getting out to enjoy it all as well.  We had trouble finding places to stay, especially on the weekends, and when we did find available campsites, they were not necessarily where we wanted to be.  But on the whole we were in much better places than hot, muggy MO.

Blessing to all who read this blog, wear your mask, stay distanced and be well!

Walla Walla Wine

The skies cleared up overnight, the wind died down and the temperatures warmed up but not too hot.  Time for some wine tasting but since our first tasting was not until 2pm we decided to explore the town on our bikes.  It was a short exploration as the bike path was covered with Goats Head thorns and about 2 miles from the RV we both had flat tires!  Lucky for us we were only about a block away from a bike repair shop and they had all 4 tires fixed by lunch time.

John scheduled three days of wine tasting in Walla Walla, spreading them out so that our tongues don’t get overly tested.  Walla Walla is being very careful concerning Covid-19 as all the tastings were held outside and the wine was brought to our table in small carafes so that we poured it into our own glasses.

At Gramercy Cellars we got to taste while watching them sort grapes from their first pickings of the season.  We had been looking forward to this wine but were disappointed in their offerings.  The second tasting was at Amani Cellars where we had a verticals tasting of three syrahs.  Again we did not care for what they had.

Wednesday we tasted at The Walls tasting room in town and at Reininger at their tasting room surrounded by vineyards, none of which were their own grapes.  For dinner we tasted at Valdemar Estates.  This vineyard is owned by a European company so they offered some actual Spanish wines from north of Barcelona. After our tasting we stayed and enjoyed a nice Tapas dinner of Spanish dishes accompanied by Tempranillo and Carménére.

Thursday we enjoyed a nice Italian lunch before going to Seven Hills Winery for a tasting at their tasting room and then enjoyed a glass of wine at Charles Smith Wines after window shopping in the downtown.  Charles Smith did not offer any tastings, we had to buy a glass.  That was disappointing too because we wanted to try some of his other wines.

Smoke and Sand

The weather forecast was for high winds beginning at 11 am.  We left Prosser at 11am and drove to Walla Walla in 20 - 25 mph winds with smoke from fires west of us and dust blown from everywhere.  By the time we arrived in Walla Walla the winds were at 35 mph and visibility was less then a mile and at times 1/2 mile and it stayed that way all afternoon.  Nasty!

Red Mountain Vineyards

We have stayed in Prosser before on a previous trip but this time we visited the vineyards and tasting rooms in a region called Red Mountain, about 15 miles east of here near a town called Benton City.  This area or AVA is well known for producing Syrah wines although we were excited to find a couple of vineyards growing the Carménère grape. This wine is prevalent in Chile and Argentina.  One vineyard grew several grapes from Portugal and Spain as well.

John spent several hours researching the vineyards and then making reservations for tastings.  He left about an hour between each appointment so we didn’t have to rush from one place to the next. On Friday we tasted at two very small vineyards - Frichette and Fidelitas and then had a tasting and dinner at Terra Blanca Winery.  We bought a case at Terra Blanca and a couple of bottles at the other two.

We took the day off on Saturday and tasted wines on Sunday.  Hedges Family Estate was only Syrah’s and we didn’t find anything there that we liked but the building and grounds were beautiful.  We found a blend that we liked at Anelare and had a really good wood fired pizza for lunch.  Last stop was Col Solare.  Their buildings reminded us of a place in Chili. We think it may be owned by the same company but no one there could confirm our suspicions.  They had some very nice Cabernet.  

Riverfront Park

I talked John into going to Downtown Spokane since we have never been here before.  Of course all the museums and old buildings are closed due to COVID-19 but we did get to enjoy the Riverfront Park which was built for the Worlds Fair in 1974.  The Carousel was closed and not much going on in the Pavilion but we enjoyed walking in the  park, viewing the river and it’s waterfalls and riding in the worlds shortest (length) and longest (time wise) gondola ride. ( I made that up!). 

We stopped at a restaurant that overlooks the falls and enjoyed a cocktail before heading back to the RV.  

Spokane River

It was just a short drive over to Spokane but our GPS kept us entertained.  She pronounced the city “Spoken” and the Highway 97 was pronounced “en-tee-SAY-veene”.  It took me a while to figure out where we were going!!

The campground was located on the west side of the city and is next to a casino. It was all I could do to keep John away from the blackjack tables!  Ha ha!

The Centennial Trail runs through Spokane and along the Spokane River.  We got on the trail west of town and rode for about 11 miles.  It was a really pretty ride.  There were several places we could get off the paved road and follow paths to overlooks.  At one we found the ‘Bowl and Pitcher’ feature in the river.  The bowl was an spot in the water and the pitcher is a rock formation next to the bowl.  While looking at the river a couple walked by and asked if we had seen the moose!  Darn, missed him!  We had a picnic lunch near a small dam and then rode back.